Out of the past: Dec. 24

1996

ST. LOUIS -- Mercantile Bancorporation Inc. and Roosevelt Financial Group, Inc., announced yesterday the organizations have signed a definitive merger agreement which will create the largest locally-managed and independently-owned financial services organization headquartered in the lower Midwest; Mercantile is headquartered in St. Louis and operates banks in Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Illinois and Arkansas; Roosevelt, also headquartered in St. Louis, has 81 locations in Missouri, Kansas and Illinois, including Cape Girardeau.

High winds last evening toppled the 15-foot-tall pizza man that had stood on the roof of Pop's Pizza, 409 N. Clark Ave., in Cape Girardeau for 30 years; the fiberglass figure fell on a customer's unoccupied car; no one was injured in the incident except the pizza man, who suffered two broken arms.

1971

National Guardsmen engage in home pickups of canned and packaged food which will benefit the Salvation Army's Christmas-winter relief project; the uniformed men, taking part in a Missourian-sponsored food drive, are calling on 50 homes and businesses which telephoned the National Guard Armory yesterday to say they wished to contribute to the cause; it is estimated 5,000 cans or packages have been collected since the drive kicked off Tuesday, still 4,000 cans short of what the Salvation Army needs to help the local needy.

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- The Perryville Board of Aldermen voted unanimously last night not to purchase 60 acres of land in the Bergman tract north of town for a city-owned sewage plant to handle the needs of a proposed expansion of the John Bishop Poultry Co.; that decision came after city officials met Wednesday in Jefferson City with Environmental Protection Agency officials.

1946

Harris Field was vacated yesterday afternoon by the federal government through its agency, the War Assets Administration, and was turned over to the Cape Girardeau Airport Board pursuant to an agreement made among representatives of the WAA, the airport board and State College; in this agreement the board agreed to pay its share of the utilities used in the flight control building and hangars, for which the board will be reimbursed each month by the Cape Girardeau Flying Service.

At midnight the Solemn Mass, "Regina Pacis," is sung by the Men's Choir at St. Vincent's Catholic Church; Elizabeth Ann Fuerth is at the organ, and the choir is under the direction of the Rev. James Saracini of St. Vincent's College.

1921

Santa Claus brought Cape Girardeau three beautiful new street cars, the equal in quality to any being used in the United States; if nothing happens, he is set to deliver two more tomorrow morning; the wrecking crane Frisco Railroad sent Friday to unload the cars was diverted to Memphis, Tennessee, at the last minute; that necessitated the cars being pulled over the wooden block and concrete street, from the foot of Broadway to the tracks at Main and Broadway, by a "live" street car on the Broadway hill.

Southeast Missouri's finest theater -- the New Broadway -- opens on West Broadway with a brief ceremony; Mayor James A. Barks speaks in behalf of the City of Cape Girardeau, as does Harry L. Albert, president of the Chamber of Commerce; S.E. Brady, theater manager, being of a retiring nature, declines to speak; "The Sheik," starring Rudolph Valentino and Agnes Ayers, opens the $125,000 picture house with two showings in the evening.

-- Sharon K. Sanders